Holy cow, you guys really wanna see Sweets pay! Hope this works for ya, it's how I saw it in my head. Your reviews are really encouraging, I'm new to fanfic and want to be a romance author and your insights are very helpful, thank you thank you thank you. So, here is the latest, only a couple more chapters to go. Enjoy!

Sweets began inching his way sideways toward his desk, never turning his back on the icy stare in front of him. He was pretty sure that any threats Booth made in the middle of the FBI offices were idle, but there was that incident with the clown….

He was almost to the safety of his desk when he spoke, his words coming out measured and calm. "Agent Booth, it is a breach of confidentiality for you to read random paperwork that you find on my desk."

Before he could react, Booth was across the room and grabbing him by the front of his shirt with one hand, his other hand still clutching his clinical assessment of Doctor Brennan. Sweets let out a small yelp of surprise as he felt his feet leave the floor slightly, the files in his hands falling to the floor in a flurry of spilled paperwork. Booth's face was inches from his, his eyes boring holes into his own. Sweets was positive, in that moment, that he was about to die.

"Seems to me that you don't care much for confidentiality if you leave your office door open. As one of your patients, I take issue with that." His tone was icy, his eyes unblinking. "And I take issue with being a lab rat too."

Sweets fought to keep his voice from shaking and failed. "I've already been over this with Doctor Brennan. I see that manipulating your circumstances was a mistake, I apologize."

Booth wanted to shake him until his brain rattled in his skull, but he had come here because he'd made the decision to talk to Sweets and the shrink wouldn't be of much use with scrambled eggs for brains.

Without warning, Booth released his hold on him. Sweets stumbled violently backwards at his unexpected freedom, grabbing out frantically for the side of his desk to keep from falling, his coffee spilling all over his chair in the process.

Booth stood deadly still and stared while Sweets righted himself, his hand going up instinctively to his rumpled shirt to smooth it out. When Booth spoke again it was through clenched teeth. "You, me, pie, now."

Confusion had Sweets slamming his eyebrows together at the Special Agent's words, but Booth turned to walk away, implying that Sweets should follow.

"It's nine o'clock in the morning Agent Booth."

Booth continued to walk to the door. "I need to talk to you."

"We can talk here."

Sweets instantly regretted the words as they made Booth turn and stalk back towards him. He was relieved that he didn't grab him by the shirt again, but Booth got back in his face, his voice dropping to an almost whisper in his effort to be as intimidating as possible. It was working like a charm.

"Look Sweets, here's how it is. I have some things I need your help with and I don't want them on Bureau time or the Bureau dime, got it? This is confidential."

A cold feeling spread through Sweets' stomach as the implications of what Booth said began to sink in. "Agent Booth, I work for the FBI to help them assess the fitness of their agents. I should tell you that if you are going to talk to me about something that could directly effect your job performance with them, it's a part of my job to disclose that information through the proper channels."

Booth smiled a humorless smile, his eyes staying dangerous looking and determined. "Well, how I see it is this has to do with your little side project and given what I've seen here-" Booth shoved the clinical assessment he'd still been holding hard into Sweets' chest, knocking the wind slightly out of him. "I'd say you owe me one if you want anything to do with myself or Bones again."

This time when Booth turned to leave the office, Sweets followed close behind.

After a short ride over in which Sweets became convinced that Booth was merely taking him to a secluded spot where no one could hear him scream they ended up, to his relief, at the diner. The psychiatrist started to feel more at ease now that they were in a heavily populated place, his concern segueing into personal and professional curiosity.

Booth's current behavior was fascinating. Aside from the obvious break from normal, coming to him alone to talk, he was sitting in front of a piece of cherry pie that he'd yet to eat and a cup of coffee he wasn't sipping. Instead, he was staring down at his food and poking it angrily with his fork.

"Is there something wrong with the pie Agent Booth?"

Booth pushed the plate away a bit, his scowl deepening. "Guess I'm just not hungry."

Sweets nodded, waiting for a moment to see if Booth would break the silence first and explain why they were there. Booth just stared, leaving Sweets to roll his eyes after a moment. Booth had initiated this meeting, but he clearly wanted Sweets to drag his reasons out of him.

"Agent Booth, I think it would be helpful if you just said what was on your mind. Think of it like ripping off a band-aid. Just lay it out on the table."

"I'm in love with Bones."

It had burst out of his mouth so quickly that it surprised even him. A feeling of calm began to wind its way through his limbs. He'd admitted it. Finally.

Sweets' eyes went so wide that he was sure his eyebrows were touching his hairline. He watched Booth as all of his bravado seemed to melt out of him at the words, like the air being let out of a tire. He uncrossed his arms from in front of his chest and sat his elbows on the table. He looked like a man who'd been carrying a heavy weight around and was now exhausted from unloading his burden.

Sweets pumped his fist once in triumph under the table so Booth wouldn't see, but he just wasn't able to repress a smug smile.

Booth's eyes narrowed. "Something funny kid?"

Sweets shook his head, trying as hard as he could to get his face under control, but a small chuckle escaped. Booth's eyes turned deadly.

Sensing he was in imminent danger, Sweets held up a hand to calm Booth. "I'm sorry Agent Booth, I'm not smiling at you. It's just, well-" Sweets seemed to struggle for a moment before he broke into a full out celebration of himself. "I knew it! I knew it! I'm the man!"

This time he pumped a fist in the air to punctuate how pleased he was. The look on Booth's face told him that congratulations wouldn't be forthcoming, so he finally reigned it in. It was time to help the obviously tortured man sitting in front of him.

Leaning forward so he could clasp his hands on the table in front of him, Sweets switched into psychiatrist mode.

" Okay, so I'm assuming that you wanted to discuss this with me, of all people, because I know both you and Doctor Brennan on a more intimate level and you are having concerns about what to do regarding your feelings?"

Booth nodded.

"Well then, let's start with your concerns."

Booth squirmed in his seat a bit and cleared his throat. He'd known that actually getting down to talking about this was going to be uncomfortable but he'd needed advice from an objective third party. Sweets was the closest thing he had to that and the bonus was that he knew them both. The drawback was Sweets was a smug little prick.

"My concerns are that we work together. I don't want anything to interfere with our professional relationship, we both agree that our work is too important and we make too good of a team to be split up."

Sweets squinted his eyes slightly at Booth as if he was analyzing something that he'd said very deeply. "Agent Booth, how long would you say you've been in love with Doctor Brennan?"

Booth sat for a moment, feeling incredibly foolish. He'd thought about that last night as he'd lain in bed, the moon streaming into his window. He'd thought about all the times that he'd looked at her and been staggered by how beautiful she was, all the times he'd laughed at something she said or did.

He remembered how he felt when they spent a lot of time together, when they'd danced at her apartment to classic rock or when they'd gotten night after night of Chinese food when she'd discovered her real identity. She'd cried in his arms, reached out to him for strength and he had the feel of her, the smell of her, etched into his heart. He'd thought about how his chest had hurt on almost a daily basis when she'd been dating Sully and how pleased he was to see that guy go. He remembered how he'd felt when he found out that her second book had been dedicated to him.

Each of those things that stood out in his memory had one pervasive emotion stringing them all together and that was passionate, desperate, hopeless love.

Booth smiled, a gentleness finally cracking through the anger, confusion and discomfort he'd been displaying up to this point. "If I had to try and pin it down, the closest I guess I could get would be the first time I laid eyes on her."

Sweets had already decided to help Booth without involving the FBI, but if he hadn't the look in Booth's eyes would have convinced him. He'd never seen this side of the man before, an utterly vulnerable side. He had been impressed that Doctor Brennan could compartmentalize her feelings and emotions so well and he'd spent days analyzing the underlying emotional root structures that ran beneath her surface. Now it appeared that he'd underestimated Booth's ability to compartmentalize as well. Sweets had theorized that they had mutual feelings for each other, but seeing such naked love in Booth's eyes was humbling. To be around them both so often and never see even a fraction of this emotion in Booth directed at Brennan was amazing to him.

It was Sweets' turn to smile. "Well, I'd say that you are both very adept at separating the personal from the professional based on my observations of you. If this wasn't merely an off the clock conversation between two friends in a diner," (Booth arched his eyebrow slightly at Sweets' use of the 'friends') "I would still see no reason to inform the FBI of any budding relationship until such time that it actually interfered with your work. So problem solved. That is what you were concerned about, was it not Agent Booth?"

Booth crossed his arms in front of him again and nodded slowly, the look on his face completely unconvincing to Sweets. Booth sighed. He'd come this far in being honest about his feelings today, as much as it made him want to hit something.

He looked Sweets in the eye. "I feel stupid saying this."

Sweets made sure his face looked reassuring. "I promise you Agent Booth, there isn't anything you could say that would sound stupid. Again, just lay it out there."

Booth's voice was soft as he continued. "What if everyone is wrong? What if she doesn't actually have any feelings for me at all beyond friendship?" He looked out the window at the people passing by, his expression unreadable, before turning back to look at Sweets again. "What if she doesn't love me?"

He'd finally been able to come to terms with his feelings and the thought of Bones rejecting him outright made his stomach clench. If she didn't feel the same way that he felt about her…well, Booth didn't want to think about how bad that would hurt.

Sweets gave him an understanding look. "Uncertainty pertaining to reciprocal feelings is the main concern for most people when they contemplate initiating a romantic relationship. You know how they get past it?"

Booth narrowed his eyes. "How?"

"They ask the person."

Booth rolled his eyes. "Come on Sweets, you know it isn't that easy. We're talking about Bones here."

Sweets shook his head. "I'm aware of who we're talking about Agent Booth. Admittedly, Doctor Brennan is a more complicated person than others. You won't get her to fall at your knees with chocolates and daisies, but you know her better than anyone. Get her out of her head, make her think for even a moment with her heart, and you'll get the girl. I'd stake my professional reputation on it."

His words made sense as he thought about the incredibly sensitive way Bones could act once she trusted her emotions. He'd seen her call on favors with political officials to save a town because she'd allowed herself to feel for one little boy. He'd even seen her almost give up her reputation, her very freedom, to cast doubt in a jury's mind about her father's guilt. She'd done these things in direct opposition to her removed, scientific opinions once she'd let her heart in.

A slow smile spread across Booth's features, his charm beginning to return before Sweets' eyes.

"Get her out of her head and into her heart." Booth repeated. He knew just what he was going to do to get the girl.